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Topic: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word (Read 9740 times) |
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Goofy Gandolf
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Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« on: May 14th, 2003, 5:28am » |
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I recently had a telephonic screening for a SDET position and this is what I was asked....
1. How would you test a Keyboard?
2. What are the shortcomings in MS Word?
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towr
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Re: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« Reply #1 on: May 14th, 2003, 7:22am » |
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I'd test a keyboard by using it.. Connect it to the computer and try out every key, and probable combinations (ctrl,alt,shift etc)
If every key works (and no important keys are missing) it's just a matter of getting used to the layout and see if it works out..
The short commings in MS-word, basicly, it's not latex, so it sucks if you want nice formulas. Also everything you've written but deleted from the text still seems to be stored, and is readable to anyone willing to look for it.
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Guest
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Re: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« Reply #2 on: May 14th, 2003, 9:30am » |
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A similar one......
"If you could add any feature to Microsoft Word, what would it be?"
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towr
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Re: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« Reply #3 on: May 14th, 2003, 12:34pm » |
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hmm.. perhaps a "replace by latex & emacs" button 
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CATNA
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Re: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« Reply #4 on: Nov 20th, 2004, 12:00pm » |
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'How do you test a Keyboard'?
1. Functional Testing: Every key press should display the output in the console All the key combinations(alt+shift+del etc.,) should work as expected. Some keys might not display an output but would perform other tasks such as VOL +/-, Brightness +/-, Function keys. You can automate the above using a microcontroller too.
2. Stress Testing: Use a Robot Arm to stress test all the keys N number of times.
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Grimbal
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Re: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« Reply #5 on: Nov 20th, 2004, 5:20pm » |
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How do you test a keyboard?
Let an army of monkey play with it and see if MS Word comes out...
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Ganon
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Re: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« Reply #6 on: Feb 8th, 2005, 10:55pm » |
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Your testing still doesn't show that the keyboard functions as it should (depending on what you meant by "all the key combinations"). As far as you know pressing the D key could trigger a "ctrl" event.
on Nov 20th, 2004, 12:00pm, CATNA wrote:'How do you test a Keyboard'?
1. Functional Testing: Every key press should display the output in the console All the key combinations(alt+shift+del etc.,) should work as expected. Some keys might not display an output but would perform other tasks such as VOL +/-, Brightness +/-, Function keys. You can automate the above using a microcontroller too.
2. Stress Testing: Use a Robot Arm to stress test all the keys N number of times. |
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Grimbal
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Re: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« Reply #7 on: Feb 9th, 2005, 12:55am » |
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There are at least 2 situations that that test won't test.
I once had a keyboard, if I press "1234" quickly, actually pressing the 4 before releasing the 1, it added keystrokes and "12d3f4" came out. It was a big problem because it happened in a password. I was sure I entered "1234", but it ended up as "12d3f4". So, pressing multiple keys must be tested. If for instance 'T' and 'H' give 'THX', it should be considered a bug.
The other situation was not actually a hardware problem in my case. My father managed to hang the computer. I asked what he did. He show me. He had a book standing between the keyboard and the screen. Then the book fell flat on the keyboard pressing most of the keys at once. That hang the computer. If you are testing a keyboard, it should be checked that the keyboard survives this kind of experience and doesn't miss any key-down or key-up events, or that at least they are properly paired.
PS: and of course, checking how well the keyboard survives the "hot coffee with sugar and milk" test isn't a bad idea either.
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JiNbOtAk
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Re: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« Reply #8 on: Mar 25th, 2005, 9:08pm » |
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Grimbal, I kinda agree with your first suggestion..get a group of monkeys to test the keyboard. 
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cloudreader
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Re: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« Reply #9 on: Apr 17th, 2006, 1:00pm » |
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First I would like to point out that the issue of pressing multiple keys and system hanging are OS implementation issues, not the keyboards function.
Having said that, we can think of the following tests for the keyboard
Fist step is to determine what kind of keyboard is it computer keyboard, wireless, PDA keyboard etc.
1) keyboards has to produce the exact scan codes for each of the keys when they are pressed according to specs.
2) keyboards has to produce exact scan codes for each of the key combinations defined in specs etc SHIFT+key, CTRL+key... in general one or more modifier + key
3) what happens if more that one key is at the same time pressed when the key combination is not defined
4) what happens if a one or many key is pressed while other one/many keys have already been pressed.
5)what is the life of each key e.g. 1 million strokes etc. test is with a robotic arm as it has been alerady suggested.
6) other user experiance are how well the keys feel for a human user (click sound, softness etc, feed back)
7) how ergonomic it is (there would be defined scales i guess)
8 ) if it is a wireless keyboard then there are additional inputs like battery strength, distance from receiver, how it performs in a place where there are multiple keyboards/receiver of same kind/different kind.
There are some of the things i can think of.
more would be welcome.
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cwolves
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Re: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« Reply #10 on: Apr 17th, 2006, 5:05pm » |
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on Apr 17th, 2006, 1:00pm, cloudreader wrote:| First I would like to point out that the issue of pressing multiple keys and system hanging are OS implementation issues, not the keyboards function. |
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Actually, this is a keyboard problem. Most keyboards use a matrix to determine key presses. Whenever you press a set of keys 2-3 bytes are sent to the OS. These 2 or 3 bytes can almost always represent all the keys pressed.
To see this, look at this old atari keyboard matrix:
http://www.howell1964.freeserve.co.uk/logic/burched/atari800xl_kbd_matri x.gif
You'll notice that you can press QWERTY at the same time without any issue.
If, however, you simply press F and K at the same time you will get "phantom" presses of both L and G because the matrix for FK is the same as that of LG.
Because of this if your old atari keyboard were to send F and K at the same time it would be entirely ignored.
This is still a very common problem in keyboards, but it is almost never noticed. I'm on my laptop right now and if I hit I, P and ] at the same time nothing happens...all the keys are ignored because the OS doesn't know exactly what combination I hit.
Normally you would never know this. There is a seperate byte sent for control keys: CTRL, ALT, ESC usually take 6 bits (2 of each key - each is sent seperately) of this and the last 2 bits are dependant on the exact keyboard but are usually taken up by 2 of: windows key, esc, enter, "menu key", FN or space.
So you only ever run into it when you hit an exact combination of keys that ghosts another key. Keyboards are designed in such a way that this very rarely happens (when would you ever actually press I, O and ] at the same time??), but if you are playing games extensively you can notice this.
For this reason they have gaming keyboards that aren't matrix based and will never have this problem.
So what would I test? I'd test sets of 4 keys that are near eachother to see if they all register. i.e hit d, f, h, j at the same time. This is another combination that doesn't work on my laptop.
I'd only "pass" a keyboard if it was determined to have at least a 5 byte matrix, meaning that any 4 keys + control keys could be pressed without any ghosting.
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towr
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Re: Test a Keyboard and shortcomings in a MS Word
« Reply #11 on: Apr 17th, 2006, 11:54pm » |
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Interesting.. I never knew it worked that way, or that pressing hjk at the same time will make my computer beep, rather then display the letters
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